London ’s recent Hatton Garden holdup was a burglary that to all purport and purposes seem to betaken from a employment of fiction . A defy raid that involve go up down ski tow shafts , drilling through a reenforce concrete wall , gaining entry to a secure vault and infract numerous secure metal good boxes before making away with valuables , powerful under the olfactory organ of security and police .
The Metropolitan Police has come under some considerable atmospheric pressure in this investigation , not least because it allegedly did n’t inquire an alarum activated at the premiss . But now the investigating seems to have displace from snail ’s yard over the Easter menses , tomaking several charges in 48 hours . So what goes on and why is it all so dense ?
unluckily , as members of the world , we are fed a diet rich in fictional law-breaking investigation that are done and dusted within a thing of hours . People are so used to having things communicate , answered and solve almost instantly in this technological age that it is hard to comprehend why , with vast advance in technology and eff - how , tangible criminal investigations are not following suit .
The answer is that justice is a slow brute . fourth dimension and tending need to be taken to see to it each and every i is dot and t is foil before a font can even get to court . Our justice system is hundred of years sometime and the police have to bring within the confines of police force , which may themselves be centuries honest-to-god . ThePolice and Criminal Evidence Act 1984gives the constabulary the powers of lookup and arrest and also get across questioning and court legal proceeding . It is a drawn-out written document and just understand the fine details of this would make most people appreciate why processes take so long .
Assembling the evidence
In the Hatton Garden enquiry the police would have needed a squad of crime scene inspector to start the painstaking process of recording the scene and searching and situate evidence , which will not just match to defendant but also help try out the offence . This grounds must be in full document , as it may end up in court where a judge and panel will need to understand where it is from and how it relates to the criminal offense and to the suspects .
The grounds is not just forensic , as in DNA and fingerprints , there is the circumstantial and intelligence evidence which the detective have to collect from witnesses . This is in the human body of statement , and hours of CCTV footage collected from vary locations and examined – and each slice of this grounds has the ability to link to other people and cameras ( for example from the road web to comply the caravan ) . Each of these needs to be try out by an expert in the field under the constraints of the law .
An charge senior inquire officer has the job of piece each of the bits of the fretsaw together with a team and at each gunpoint there will be more task created for that squad to take after up to insure as much information is gathered before even consider an arrest strategy .
Making the arrest
In this case the arrests ask endorsement , which have to be granted by the Magistrates Court , to explore each suspect ’s house , work and vehicle . Each of these hunt must be undertaken under restraint of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act , dictate how searches are handle and how long person can be held in custody before being bill .
As the suspect are being interview , the investigating squad will be liaising with criminal offence vista examiners who will be working at the various sites relating to defendant . Scientists and other experts will be examine some of the grounds and ship’s officer will be conduct further interviews with other people close to the suspects . sampling from the defendant will also be collected to check against evidence from the scene , including DNA and fingermark .
Once the enquire policeman is quenched there is enough evidence , then a defendant is officially charged and in these types of case they are unremarkably remanded in detention rather than bail . The work for the police wo n’t end there , as they commence to look at possible defense propositions and confirm that their pillowcase is strong enough to go to the Crown Prosecution Service .
In this crime , as in many , it really is like the tortoise and the hare – slow and steadfast is best . It may be thwarting for those who wish their answers quick , but it ’s absolutely necessary in terms of the practice of law .
Emma Rixonis Senior Lecturer , Crime Scene Investigation atNottingham Trent University .
This article was earlier release onThe Conversation . Read theoriginal article .
mental image byChewy734under Creative Common license .
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